Sunday, May 27, 2012

FreeForm Vest: Homes and Healing

I've been very productive, a surge of creativity sparked by the daily make and learn that was National Crochet Month this year. The triptych and its oddments called out for more, and I've been compelled and impelled to oblige, sometimes foregoing sleep to work out an idea.

The slo burn was to create a "quick" freeform piece comprised of my newly evolved
motifs: houses, wings and a return to flat dolls. I had several motifs already in the deliciously cream with undertones of butter, Cloud. I knew I wanted to make my take on the Russian leaves, and leaf-making approach -- mainly the ones that aren't like anything I've ever seen, not even Irish Crochet, those are in one of my favorite Elann colors 1477-- a subdued yellow green. Then, for dark there is the evocative Fairytale, a sort of burgundy meets pink, red grape meets raspberry, luscious. And I wanted a yellow. So here's where i pause.

I didn't want to place an order and needed just one skein of a light yellow. Honey
in Knit Picks merino looked just right on the screen. So i bought it from a Raveler.
When it arrived it was much more intense a yellow that on screen, but i pushed ahead and made motifs in.

Suddenly the balance of the narrative was off. Yes, yes, I wanted yellow, but this one
white it worked fine with the cream and the green, it undid the pinks and raspberrys.

And I came to the hard decision to not use it.

Removing all the place the shapes filled, hurt. But the glowing, Crayola pile
of these nearly school bus-colored bits, assured me that it was only the commitment to push my color boundaries that made me include it.

If it were for art, I would have left them in, but I knew they would burn and itch
and annoy me over time... I don't know why but they just didn't fit.

So now my quick project will take longer than I hoped. Yet,
I'm learning as I go -- and the project gave me several new patterns
that I'll discuss in greater detail in another post: houses, wings, new leaves, flat dolls.